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She stepped back, gently pulling her hand from his. “You can’t seem to help yourself. You’re a protector, Zane. It’s what drew you to Sydney, isn’t it?”

“What are you asking?”

Even though they were cloaked in shadows, she couldn’t face him anymore. She brushed passed him to put distance between them.

“I guess I’m wanting to know if I’m a substitute for the one you can’t have.”

“Why do you think Sydney is the one I want? She’s with Cole. They’re going to be married soon, and I’m giving her away.”

Bridget rolled her eyes enough to cause a twinge of a headache.Men!They could be so clueless at times. She whirled around, her hand swiping at the hair slapping her face.

“I’ve seen how you look at her. She is who you want, but she doesn’t need to be rescued anymore. So you’ve moved on to me. I’m not a replacement. I don’t need to be some sort of ego boost or distraction. I don’t need things to be more complicated than they already are.”

“What do you want me to say?”

She sighed. “I don’t know. The truth, I guess. Why are you so willing to help me?”

She held her breath as he moved toward her, his strides purposeful and slow like a jungle cat stalking its prey. He stood in front of her, and she swore the heat from his gaze seared through her clothes to brand her skin. Silence stretched between them so thick she felt her lungs struggle to draw in a breath. She wished she could see his expression or his eyes to guess what he was thinking. Was he aware of the zing of electricity coursing through her veins when he was close? Did he know the effect his intense eyes had on her body, making her aware of every masculine part of him?

What would he do if she gave into the urge to touch him? Her fingers could sneak under the hem of his T-shirt and stroke the hard plane of his abs, and if he didn’t push her away, she could allow her lips to follow the trail. She swallowed the wave of saliva suddenly filling her mouth.

“I like you.” Zane’s voice carried softly on the night air, tickling her ears with the gentle vibrato. “I like how you care for other people. I like how you would fight to the death to protect your kids. You are full of sass and spunk, and all in a petite package. You…intrigue me. More than anyone I have ever met.”

He stepped even closer, though their bodies didn’t touch. “You claim I am using you to forget the one I can’t have. You think I consider you a distraction. Well, you are a distraction, but you are not a replacement. You distract me from the bad things I have to deal with as part of my job. You keep me from being so wrapped up in my own stuff that I miss out on things like laughter or good conversation or being with someone because I want to and not because I’m paid to.”

“Y-you want to be with me?”

“Yes, and that’s why you’re a complication for me, too.”

“So what do we do?”

“We could ignore it. Just be friends and pretend there’s not something else going on.”

“We could.” She drew the words out slowly, silently praying this was not what he wanted. Remaining friends was the easiest and probably the smartest choice, but everything within her screamed against being placed in the friend zone.

“Or we could do what I’ve been wanting to do since the barbecue.”

Bridget could almost hear her nerve endings humming. Fear threatened to choke her, preventing her from asking what she desperately wanted to ask. What if the answer wasn’t what she hoped? She could be humiliated for taking a risk, but Bridget had never been one to back down in the face of fear.

“What is it?”

She spoke too low, so she wasn’t sure he heard her. She swallowed and opened her mouth to try again. He immediately placed a rough palm over her mouth, his touch light but enough for her to understand. She was quiet as she waited. Once he saw he had her attention, he moved his hands to cradle her face between his palms. His thumbs lightly caressed her cheeks. She closed her eyes as waves of pleasure swept through her. Damn, it’d been too long since she’d been with a man if such a simple touch turned her to mush.

“To kiss you. Not one of those short, sweet kisses that men and women have after a first date, when they barely know each other. It’s the kind of kiss we should have, but it’s not the kind I want.”

“What do you want?” Her words came out stronger, bolder, and her head tilted toward his touch.

“To kiss you the way you deserved to be kissed. With all the heat and desire we’ve been fighting since I was in the hospital.”

The sass he had talked about chose this moment to appear, from where she had no idea because her mind had short-circuited the minute he said he wanted to kiss her. She pulled his hands from her face but didn’t release them.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Mr. Wilder. The only thing I was fighting when you were my patient was the urge to slap you when you got too nosy.”

He chuckled. “Okay. Maybe the desire was all mine, but it doesn’t change a thing. I want to kiss you until we both forget our names and all of the stress and problems in our lives. I want to forget everything but how it feels to hold you. And how it feels to taste you. And how it feels to touch every inch of you.”

“So what’s stopping you?”

He lowered his head, and she released his hands so her arms could snake around his neck. How could his lips be soft and strong at the same time? She’d had a feeling this man would know how to kiss, but she had underestimated him. He didn’t just know how to kiss. He knew how to possess. She was his the minute his tongue slid between her lips and tangled with hers. One hand moved to the back of her head. His fingers buried into the short strands of her hair and angled her head to give him better access to her mouth.